It is known in the art to provide a climate control system of a motor vehicle with a filter adapted to remove certain particulates and contaminates from the air stream being directed by the climate control system into the passenger compartment of the motor vehicle.
This document relates to a new and improved climate control filter monitoring system as well as to a related method of monitoring the useful service life of a climate control system filter. The system and method provide for testing the operating condition of the climate control system filter on a periodic basis. This is done by setting all operating conditions of the climate control system to a certain test configuration before measuring the pressure drop across the climate control system filter.
More particularly, as the climate control system filter ages, it loads up with contaminates including particulates and chemical contaminates and as a result the pressure drop increases. That pressure drop increase can be directly correlated to a useful filter life condition. As part of the system development, a clean filter can be measured. That filter could then be loaded to a known (dirty) condition and the pressure drop remeasured. The corresponding pressure drop could be used by the climate control filter monitoring system as the trigger point to indicate a dirty filter condition wherein the filter needs cleaning or replacing.